my dad sent me a text and was like NO MORE CUCUMBERS so when i picked up our box i took out three huge cukes and put them in the take it or leave it box only to get home to find a buttload of pickling cukes hidden at the bottom. i guess ill be making pickles this weekend

I feel you. I've been eating cucumbers everyday and I can't finish them all. Last week I forbid my partner from bringing anymore home. He traded for extra collards thank god. BUT, there were two different kinds and he brought home the small ones! Of course he doesn't help me eat them. If we get more this week, I will probably trade them again. I don't have time or space for pickles.

i was so lazy this past week (period makes me bleh). we ate the melon fresh, had both of the zucchinis simply stirfried with a dash of pepper on the side of something. i don't remember now maybe some bruschetta. that rings a bell. made some sloppy joes for the firehouse and had so much left over!!! last night we had baked potatoes (they were so darn good!!!!! never had potatoes that fresh before.) with some stir-fried green beans (i am so lucky the CSA doesn't offer these, cause i am still drowning in them.) and the sauteed grape tomatoes. (just tossed them in the pan without slicing them. they were pretty tasty this way.) oh! i remember using the chard and some zucchini and green beans in some spaghett, and i don't remember what we had with the kale. a week is too long to remember this stuff. :-)

never used the onions, eggplant, peppers, hot peppers or slicing tomatoes. sounds like i need to make a chili or curry (especially since i got more of all of these this week.

today i picked up a great haul:BELL PEPPERS (3 more, including one that was a light purple. pretty!) KALE (i'll cook this up tonight since there is a critical mass in the fridge) GARLIC (it doesn't indicate that it's fresh, so i'll keep this one for planting in the garden if i don't need to use garlic in the near future. but i'll probably get more each week anyway.) GRAPE TOMATOES (a pint. on top of the pint of cherries from my garden) HOT PEPPERS (2 more) EGGPLANT (2 more) CABBAGE (big honkin' one)SUMMER SQUASH (3 on top of the 5 from my garden) SWISS CHARD ONIONS (i am absolutely going to freeze these things. i probably have 10 lbs of various onions from different sources in my kichen)CILANTRO (gave it to my neighbor with some garden zucchini.) COLLARD GREENS (i'll probably start freezing some greens for winter use. might as well. mr carrot's iron count has gone up from all these greens. w00t!) SLICING TOMATOES (5 on top of the 6 from my garden)

and then i harvested 3 tigger melons from the garden. i am absolutely going to only get the half share next year. this is overwhelming.

We've been eating the strawberries as is, the corn cobs were a side for burgers (so good), the onion and beans I used in the IDI beefy asparagus stir fry but with uh, beans instead of asparagus. Lettuce became salad. The red potatoes are still awaiting their destiny.

My neighbour received her friend's CSA box as she is away for a couple of weeks and she gave me what she didn't want. Kale, a huge savoy cabbage, a zucchini, a summer squash and a couple cucumbers. My other neighbour gave me two huge zucchinis and a bag of various hot peppers. Will be an interesting week!

i am making a chili tonight, so i should get rid of some peppers and tomatoes today, bu i still have squash, onions, garlic and collards from last week. (the collards might be bad, i haven't checked. i'll make those tonight.)

we visited the in-laws on the weekend, and i brought the chard up, but i should have brought more. i'm not having luck with the tigger melons from my garden. they just have a weird unenjoyable texture and not much flavor. i'll leave the others in the garden longer, maybe they need more sugar or something.

i made another curry with the eggplant (the white eggplant went weird and spotty, so that went in the trash), and an everything soup, we had burritos, green beans alongside grilled cheez sammies. (and as usual, other stuff that i forgot about)

that stew was super tasty. i still have plenty of stuff to make another batch, so i think i will.i had to toss the chard, because i kept putting it off, and by the time a week rolled around, it smelled mildewy. (i just wasn't in the mood for it) we had pizzas for the past 2 nights, so we only ate zucchinis and collards on the side. (i did make a tomato sauce, and used some of that as the base.) ate more chili and had homefries with lots of onion and bell pepper. also made a fried rice.

got mostly more of the same as last week.BELL PEPPERSGARLIC CHERRY TOMATOES EGGPLANT SHALLOTS (this time only 3, but i still have loads from last week left.) SLICING TOMATOES BEETS (and the bunch from last week) DILL (and last week's left over too. this one i hung up to dry.) HOT PEPPERS (looks like green tabascos) COLLARD GREENS ONIONS SUMMER SQUASH PARSLEY

i actually ended up giving my dad a whole bunch of stuff rather than splitting it in half like usual cause i have a serious backlog.there was one bok choy and one lettuce so i took the bok choy and let him have the lettuce. we havent even touched our lettuce from last week yet.i gave him all the peppers as i think my mom is going to make him stuffed peppers and i gave him all the tomoates except 1 because i have huge tomato plants on my deck.

im going to be making sweet pickles with a recipe my MIL gave me that calls for like 7 lbs of cukes so finally i can do something with this glut of cukes

uhh for the first time this year we decided to do a double veg share because a single just wasn't enough! But then we went and haphazardly planted a big garden, thinking it wouldn't really take off (the neighbor behind swore "You can't grow anything back here! Too many raccoons and possums!") and well, we were WRONG. The main problem I have right now is soooo many tomatoes, and of course they are all harvest-able at once. Sooo, what can we do with pounds and pounds of lovely tomatoes? They are generally rather large, not plum variety. I'm considering a big pot of sauce but that seems somewhat uninspired.

Dang how is it already apple and pear season! The summer is flying by.

I dunno if it was hot or what but my kale was wilted and yellowed day of (their fault),nth gypsy peppers were shriveled, and I took 2 days to unload my box, by which time the eggplants had gotten tons of fuzzy mold. So that sucks. I complained about the kale already. Hopefully I'll hear back from them.

I would make a huge batch of stewed tomatoes and can them for use in soups and stuff later in the year. The taste will be so much better than store bought! It's a lot of work though. I think sauce is a great idea too!

whoops. forgot to post what we got this week.i made a borscht with all the beets, and i don't hate it! (it's a little too sweet, so i might see about a dessert if we end up getting more) peeling them before doing anything with them is definitely key though. gets rid of a lot of the earthiness.made a basic stir fry, another batch of the PPK shallot eggplant stew. and chana with fresh tomatoes. oh man, fresh tomatoes really brings chana up a notch. so tasty!

this week, more of the same:PEPPERS 2 more GARLIC CHARD 2 bags of GREEN BEANS (i might freeze 'em)GRAPE TOMATOES SHALLOTS (brings my total up to overwhelming+)SLICING TOMATOES PARSLEYONIONS (they're making me tear up. reminds me why i only buy sweets.) HOT PEPPERS CILANTRO (will give this to my neighbor. or maybe i'll hang it to dry. i don't think i hate it as much when it's dried.) 4 EGGPLANT (and i still have the eggplant from last week)WATERMELON (this one was seedless)

I thought my share was over but I think I have another week....or two!Today I picked up my small bag of:Cherry tomatoesBeet greensRed beetsFennel fronds (whaaaaa)Large lemon cucumberZucchini Green leaf lettuce

last week's green beans came in all muddy, and i waited too long to process them so they went all moldy. i wasn't excited to work with them, so that's okay. my clean ones from my garden have been great, so i'm not upset.i ordered 7 seasonal cookbooks to help me slog through this food, and so far, we had the grilled eggplant sandwiches and coconut chard soup from inspired vegan. both were very tasty. tonight i will make the smoky tomato and tempeh stew.

yesterday i picked up:6 (purple) bell PEPPERS(even more) GARLIC2 CUCUMBERS2 zucchini SQUASHSALAD TOMATOESSLICING TOMATOES HEIRLOOM TOMATOES HOT PEPPERS2 (thai) EGGPLANT (in addition to the 3 black beauties leftover from last week)POTATOES(yet even more) DILLCELERY (oops! we never got celery in the box before, so i picked up 2 hearts over the weekend. time for a minestrone, i suppose)

So far I've made a big pot of gumbo, and veggie burgers (mostly eggplant) served on a bed of arugula

There has been so much okra this year! Yes, I've made lots of gumbos, but also I tried baking the okra and found that it takes out the slimy texture and even gives a pleasant crunch. :) Now, if I can just figure out what to do with all those damned green beans...

visited the in-laws over the weekend, and made sure to bring some produce (even though we went the easy route for some meals since they offered to pay for groceries... and i really like visiting new health food stores. mmm the pesto tofurky sausages are nommy.) we also made a peanut-sauce-y shallot/eggplant/green bell pepper/asparagus saute. decided to dip into "local bounty" and made the yemenite lentil stew. i also made a batch of spaghetti sauce with onion and zucchini, and i still have too many tomatoes. made cucumber sandwiches, and the green bean and new potato soup. (it was very interesting. very dilly. only made 2.5 servings as opposed to 4. ;-) the smoky tomatoes, roasted plantains and tempeh stew from inspired vegan was tasty despite the cilantro. next time i will reduce the amount used AND i will cook it longer than 5 minutes.)

yesterday i had to toss the 2 thai eggplants that had gone bad, half of a zucchini, and 5 tomatoes. (but at least those tomatoes were from my garden, and i think i must not have put enough calcium in the soil, or bugs are just eating holes in them or something.)

picked up: more bell PEPPERS (i definitely have to focus on these this week. even if only to toss them in the freezer)GARLIC CUCUMBERS BEETSGRAPE TOMATOES SQUASH SLICING TOMATOES HEIRLOOM TOMATOES (they don't call jersey the garden state for nothing. i suppose i should make some sauce for freezing.)HOT PEPPERS EGGPLANT FENNEL LETTUCE CILANTRO (pretty sure i dodged this bullet. i think they forgot to put it in.) PARSLEY

from local bounty, we made greek stewed veggies (with a lot of what we had, so this was really good. carrots, zucchini, green beans, 'maters, we even had the fresh dill!)we also made the yemenite lentil stew. also tasty. used an eggplant, parsley, cilantro, jalapeno, carrots, zucchini) i will probably use less cilantro? i didn't make a note, so maybe it had mellowed. don't remember.

from vegan table, we made basil eggplant (extremely simple, but really tasty! i didn't have thai basil, so i used some regular basil and a sprinkle of chinese 5-spice)the garlic and greens soup was also pretty simple, but tasty. (my only issue is that it calls for salt and pepper to taste. i never know how much salt to add, since i never think of adding it on my own. and that's probably why i always feel dehydrated.)ratatouille with white beans (used a lot, and made a lot! eggplant, onions, bell peppers, zucchini, 'maters, parsley) definitely a win. and the beans made it nice and hearty.

from vegan table, i made the beet bundt cake (finally, something i can tolerate beets in) the garlic and greens soup (very simple, but very tasty.)from local bounty, pasta with chard and fennel. (not exactly what i expected, but it was a fascinating combo. the saltiness offset the fennel really well.) cous-cous & roasted red pepper soup (this was really good! definitely something i would make again. and again.)and finally, from fresh from the vegan slow cooker, slow cooked seitan fajitas. (when it says cook on low, they mean cook on low. some of the seitan stuck to the bottom of the cooker, but it wasn't too much of a loss. this was quite tasty.)

am i really the only person still getting their veggie box? (or are the rest of you just feeling lazy? ;-)

ok, so this week we made:from vegan slow cooker:-mulligatawny soup (used some of the bell peppers, but i had to buy a sweet potato and a granny smith apple) it was fascinating. very interesting combination. i've long ago heard the name, but never really knew what was in it.-african inspired peanut stew. (used some of the chard and a bell pepper, but i had to buy 2 sweet potatoes) this was delicious! definitely a make again meal.

from vegan table:-caponata (used the eggplant and some celery) this was also fascinating. it used almost a whole jar of capers!-pasta and green beans with peanut sauce. very tasty, but i think next time i'll add a smidge of thai chili paste.-garlic glazed green beans. (i used the dragon tongue beans, so it was a little different than the intended flavor, but it was still really tasty. lots of flavors going on. festive.)

now we're back to getting the more unusual items in the box. and OMGreens!